The chairman of the Paysandu Emergency Committee, Ricardo Melo, said they are not going to declare the Department in state of disaster yet. With more than 3,500 evacuees, a state of emergency was declared as a way to raise all citizens awareness about the situation.

According to Melo, the situation is stable since Uruguay river has maintained its level at 9.7 meters and  evacuations have slowed down.
Evacuees are housed in family homes, camps and in more than 400 shelters.

The measures being taken envolve primarily health, in order to prevent and alert on diseases that floods bring.

Melo said donations are arriving at a good pace and that "a large bank of materials has been requested for the future, but is still quite difficult to assess the cost of the damage until the level of the river drops. We are living on what we are gETTing."

As for the threats of dengue, mosquito larvae, were found in urbanized areas "but nothing compared to 2008," meaning that the situation is under control.

(180, December 3rd 2009)